ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Built Environ.
Sec. Urban Science
This article is part of the Research TopicNew Approaches for Sustainable & Resilient Processes and Products of Social Housing Development in the Arabian Gulf Countries - Vol 2View all 9 articles
Sustainable Energy Adoption in UAE Homes (Villas and Apartments)
Provisionally accepted
- 1Ajman University, Ajman, United Arab Emirates
- 2The British University in Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
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Abstract— In the 21st century, global warming stands out as a pressing global challenge, necessitating a profound shift in societal values and lifestyles toward sustainability—particularly in how we design and power our homes. The purpose of this study is to examines factors shaping household adoption of residential solar in UAE, where buildings (including housing) account for nearly 80% of the country's total electricity consumption, highlighting the crucial role of sustainable housing in climate change mitigation. The study explores the factors motivating communities to embrace Renewable Energy solutions in their homes as a means to combat climate change, employing a quantitative survey to gauge the sentiments mainly in UAE residents toward Renewable Energy adoption in households. A cross-sectional survey employing a structured questionnaire was conducted, with analysis performed via factor analysis in SPSS. The sample size was initially calculated as 73; however, 82 were validated among 90 respondents from UAE households. The results reveal that economic benefits serve as the main motivator for adopting Renewable Energy in residential settings, representing the strongest driving factor behind homeowners' decisions. The originality of the work lies in providing a quantified ranking of adoption motivators—economic benefit (~41.8%) as the primary factor, followed by the government's role (~17%), and climate-risk awareness (~6.4%)—with four factors accounting for approximately 82.4% of the total. This level of detail is not commonly reported in prior UAE studies. The research sheds light on key drivers that can expedite Renewable Energy adoption in the UAE's residential sector, offering valuable insights for practitioners, experts, and policymakers. Moreover, the results underscore the need for further investigation to identify additional factors that can facilitate the wider deployment of Renewable Energy solutions in UAE housing (villas and apartments).
Keywords: Diffusion of innovation, environmental attitudes, Household solar adoption, perceived cost–benefit, Policy incentives, Residential photovoltaics
Received: 18 Oct 2025; Accepted: 04 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Salameh and Touqan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Muna Salameh
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